Progress Weeks 27-28

These pictures reflect the interproximal reduction (teeth filing/shaving) completed to the bottom teeth on 12/15 of last year. The dentist filed between 7 spaces to remove 0.2 of a milimeter of tooth on each space. See My Treatment Overview for location of filing.

Below are Images After: Tray 14   (taken on 1/9/2013)

Remaining Trays in Treatment: 10

Lockjaw: At the beginning of tray 15, the lockjaw loosened up for a couple days, but that was temporary. The usual amount of tension (without pain) returned after a few days. This seems like a good indicator that my bite is starting to get matched up again!

Pain: This tray wasn't bad, but tray 15 had my teeth very sore (especially on the bottom) the first few days. The pain is usually most apparent right after removing the trays to eat. Still no crazy headaches.

Wear: 16-20 hours a day
Brushing: Not as much as I should during the day at work
Flossing: Not every night like I should. My awesome streak was definitely altered by the holidays.

I requested during my December appointment that the dentist try to remove staining on one of my attachments (shown below.)

11.13.2012 with stain

1.9.2013 Front View with no stain!

Top View

Bottom View

Left View

Right View

Sorry for the lack of quality on the last photo.

Progress Weeks 21-22

Images After: Tray 11    (taken on 11/27/2012)

Remaining Trays: 13

Lockjaw: Consistent. No pain
Headaches: None
Pain: Only sore first day of new tray

Wear: 16-20 hours a day
Brushing: Not as much as I should during the day at work
Flossing: Every night

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Left View

Right View

Progress Weeks 19-20

Images After: Tray 10     (taken on 11/13/2012)

Remaining Trays: 14

Lockjaw: Consistent. No pain
Headaches: None
Pain: Only sore first day of new tray

Wear: 16-20 hours a day
Brushing: Not as much as I should during the day at work
Flossing: Every night

I've had a stain on my front bottom attachment for months. When I went to the dentist in mid-December, they were able to remove it. All I had to do was ask.

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Left View

Right View

Catch Up and Almost Breaking a Tray

What I've Missed

Happy 2013! I just shoved on my first new trays of the year. With the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays I've missed a few posts so I wanted to make a quick update while trays were on my mind. My last progress post included pictures of my teeth on 10/30/2012.

Here are the posts I've missed since then:

• 11/13/12 Progress after tray 10
• 11/27/12 Progress after tray 11
• 12/12/12 Progress after tray 12 - no picures sorry
• 12/26/12 Progress after tray 13 - no picures sorry
• 1/9/13 Progress after tray 14

On 12/12 I had interproximal reduction (teeth shaving) done for my bottom teeth.  The dentist decided  to wait for a few more trays before doing the top so I have to go back after to have the top areas reduced. I'm going to do a full post detailing the interproximal reduction experience, so stay tuned for details.

Tray Shenanigans

Today's trays were the hardest to get on yet.  I wasn't sure if I was going to get the top tray on without breaking it part of it. The edge over the right K9 tooth folded down a bit while I was trying to get it on...unsuccessfully. I used some tweezers to fix it before trying again. Maybe I just had a bad angle or something, but I did get the tray on about 30 seconds later. They're about as tight as usual. Nothing too out of the ordinary, save for my trimus (lockjaw) on the right jaw seems to have eased up a bit instead of being worse. We'll see if it lasts. The jaw definitely feels different, but I can't yet figure out in what way or if its going to be more or less painful than before. Wish me luck!

Progress Weeks 17-18

Images After: Tray 9

Remaining Trays: 15

Lockjaw: Consistent. No pain
Headaches: None
Pain: Only sore first day of new tray

Wear: 16-20 hours a day
Brushing: Not as much as I should during the day at work
Flossing: Every night

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Right View 

Left View

Progress Weeks 15-16

Below are pictures after tray 8, I'm currently on tray 10 so I'll also be posting pictures after tray 9 soon.
No changes to my tray-wearing experience. It's actually become pretty predictable, so I figured it would be good to just have a standard checklist that gets posted with each picture set to make posts easier and more consistent for me.

Images After: Tray 8
Remaining Trays: 16

Lockjaw: Consistent. No pain
Headaches: None
Pain: Only sore first day of new tray

Wear: 18-20 hours a day
Brushing: Not as much as I should during the day at work
Flossing: Every night

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Left View

Right View

Progress Weeks 13-14

Tray seven is done, 17 to go! Below are pictures after tray 7. I was in a rush had just eaten. I didn't have time to brush so some of the pictures show just how super stained your teeth are after food and drink. Insane right? I've decided to try to add side shots to the set because this seems to be where things are doing the most movement right now.

The lockjaw and craziness of not really having a matched bite has become more "normal" for me. I think my teeth have gotten used to moving around all loosey goosey so I don't really have as much pain after a new trays. It's kinda of sore after I take of the trays for sure, but no major headaches or tension like I had when I first started Invisalign. Kind of hard to believe that I'll been wearing my trays for almost 4 months now. I'll be moving into tray 9 in just a few days. Kind of exciting to be coming up on the halfway mark (tray 12) before I know it! :)

Front View

Top View

Bottom View

Right View

Left View

Doing pretty good. I haven't been wearing my trays as much as I should - more like 18-20 hours rather than 20-22 but it hasn't been an issue. Things are moving around well, pain isn't constant in any way. I floss every night and have a brushing routine that isn't psycho. Things are good and it's more "routine" now. Not gonna lie though, I'm ready to have these things off. June 2013 can't come soon enough!